Overcoming obstacles and finding success against all odds
Story from Hauwa A Tijjani
I was supposed to graduate with a First-Class, but I made a 2:1 (second class upper) in the Computer Science Department because a lecturer vowed that I couldn’t be the best student ever. What was my offense? He claimed that I was insolent for publicly correcting a wrong notion he stated during one of his lectures.
He also mentioned that since he didn’t graduate with a First Class, nobody else should in the department as long as he was alive. This happened about 12 years ago, and he was the main orchestrator behind the conspiracy to mark me down in my final year.
I felt incredibly depressed the day I received my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) call-up letter and saw that I was posted to Kebbi, one of the educationally less-developed states in the country. As I left the school premises, I encountered Dr. Irukefe on the walkway.
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He mentioned that he had heard about my posting and laughed, stating that it wouldn’t be of much use to apply my computer knowledge in a state where there were few computers. He insinuated that I wouldn’t succeed in the profession. I was taken aback as I had hoped to serve in Lagos. Little did I know that he had influenced my posting.
Later, I found out from a reliable source that he had actually threatened to make me have an extra year in school. I was shocked to discover the extent of his animosity towards me. Nevertheless, due to the hardships of my poor background and my parents’ struggle to send me to school, I remained diligent in my studies.
I eventually arrived at the NYSC camp in Dakingari, feeling disheartened. I had hoped to serve in Lagos, where an IT firm had promised to pay me 20,000 Naira, in addition to my NYSC allowance. Just three days before camp ended, I was approached by a man who needed help repairing a laptop computer. I volunteered and successfully fixed it for him. He expressed his gratitude, took my phone number, and left without paying me for my efforts.
Initially, I believed I would be assigned to teach in a school. However, when I received my placement letter, I was surprised to see that I had been posted to the office of the Senator representing a constituency in the state.
I was astonished. More amazed, when my phone rang about an hour and the man who came with the faulty Laptop was waiting for me in a Jeep.
He drove me to meet the senator, who thanked me profusely for saving his laptop because it contained bills that he wanted to sponsor at the Senate for his constituency.
The Senator offered me a job as his Personal Assistant and computer instructor at the computer institute he had set up in the state. He laid down his plans on how he wanted young students in his constituency to be computer literate and I am to be the coordinator.
My salary was over 80,000 Naira, with a furnished apartment, and medical allowance. I had access to his cars, and the first contract I executed made me a millionaire because I was asked to procure laptops and accessories for all the senior civil servants in the state ministries.
His company was given the contract.
It was from this state that I was able to secure a scholarship to study after three years of working with my principal after NYSC. He didn’t want me to go because the computer school was a success story but he facilitated my comfortable arrival in the United States.
All this happened within 12 years.
I have a Ph.D. in Forensic and Information Technology.
Not quite a long I was speaking at the conference of World Forensic Scientists in Japan. After delivering my lecture, there was a standing ovation from the participants all over the world.
Among them was my old-time lecturer, after the proceeding, I walked up and greeted him, he acted like he couldn’t recall who I was so I reminded his exact words which were “let me see how you will make it in this profession. I am the boy you said those words to.
He was astonished.
I advised, “try to be a mentor to the young students, you don’t know who and what they will become.”
“Not only have I made it from this profession but internationally am recognized, you must have been seeing my publications, It was I who paid $5500 to sponsor your trip for this conference under the auspices of GRAND Inc. I owed the company.
“Sir, yearly you will be invited, to speak at a conference like this, it’s my way of saying thank you for influencing my posting to Kebbi state that particular year. If you had not done it I would not have made it to where I am today. You meant evil but God turn it into good.
“I hope your hotel room (Room 312) has a nice view of Tokyo?”
He stood rooted to the spot, he was too dazed to speak as I was taken away to meet other professionals in the tech business.
He later sent a mail of apology
when ASUU went on strike, I was informed he was boasting at the department in Nigeria that he is the only lecturer in Africa, who was invited to participate at the GRAND Inc World Conference and subsequently he would be one of the speakers. I guess a leopard never changes its spot.
I am glad he is not poor but he didn’t meet me where he left me 12 years ago.
No matter what anyone does to you, continue to be hardworking, a man’s gift one day will always make a way for him.
May the Lord give us the spirit to forgive those who do not wish us well and may they know that to pull others down they too will be below.
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